Raspberry Cupcakes

After moving to our new apartment, travelling back and forth across the country a few times, and getting my new pink stand mixer, I am definitely back into the swing of baking goodies.  For my little sister Stacy’s graduation from San Francisco State University last month (I’m so proud of you!), I made white chocolate chip cookies with toasted walnuts.  The recipe, adapted from Michelle’s at Brown Eyed Baker, has become my new favorite white chocolate chip cookie recipe. 

Over Memorial Day weekend, Dan and I had a special guest over for dinner, and I made a batch of these tasty raspberry cupcakes for dessert.  They were a great end to our dinner of pork tenderloin, salad, roasted new potatoes, and bottle of Cabernet Franc from Veramar vineyards (one of my favorites).  I adapted the recipe for these cupcakes from one for classic yellow cupcakes in The Art of Soul of Baking, a book Stacy gave me for Christmas last year.  The book is full of little sticky tabs on the recipes I want to try, including the soufflé on the cover; but that will have to wait for another day.  In the meantime, enjoy these little beauties!

Raspberry Cupcakes

Makes one dozen cupcakes

2 cups (7 ounces) sifted cake flour (I used all-purpose)

1½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1½ sticks (6 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature

¾ cup (5¼ ounces) sugar

3 large eggs, at room temperature

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/3 cup (3 ounces) milk

6 ounces fresh raspberries, pureed and strained (I used a food mill)

12 fresh raspberries (for garnish)

Preheat oven to 350˚F and line a standard sized muffin tin with paper cupcake liners.

Puree the raspberries and strain through a fine meshed strainer to remove most of the seeds.  Alternatively, you can churn the raspberries through a food mill fitted with the fine mesh disc.  You should have about ½ cup of raspberry puree.  Set aside.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.

Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat on medium speed until very light and fluffy.  Beat the eggs and vanilla lightly in a small bowl.  Add the eggs and vanilla a little bit at a time to the creamed butter and sugar mixture, mixing well between each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure the eggs, butter, and sugar are well mixed. 

With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture and the milk alternately, beginning with one third of the flour mixture and one half of the milk; repeat; then finish with the last of the flour mixture.

Fold the raspberry puree into the batter with a spatula until well incorporated (pink streaks in the batter will make create nicely swirled cupcakes).  Distribute batter evenly among twelve muffin cups and bake in the preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean.

Remove the cupcakes from the oven and allow to cool slightly in the pan.  Transfer the cupcakes to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before frosting.

(Recipe adapted from The Art and Soul of Baking by Cindy Mushet)

Frost the cupcakes with “That’s the Best Frosting I’ve Ever Had” from MissyDew at Pioneer Woman’s Tasty Kitchen, spiked with a dash of Chambord (adapted recipe included below).

That’s the Best Frosting I’ve Ever Had (with Chambord)

5 tablespoons flour

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon of Chambord

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar (not powdered sugar!)

In a small saucepan, whisk flour into milk and heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens to the consistency of brownie batter.  Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.   It must be completely cool before you use it in the next step. Stir in the vanilla and Chambord.

While the mixture is cooling, cream the butter and sugar together until very light and fluffy.  Then add the completely cooled milk/flour/vanilla/Chambord mixture and beat the living daylights out of it.  Beat it until it no longer looks separated and resembles whipped cream. 

Transfer the frosting to a pastry bag fitted with a large pastry tip (or a gallon-sized freezer bag with one bottom corner snipped off) and frost the cupcakes generously.  Top each cupcake with a fresh raspberry and enjoy!